Around this time every year, I like to reflect on my upbringing. I moved to the US from Ukraine at a young age, and my parents had less than $300 in their pocket to start an entirely new life. It shaped the way I see the world — and the way I approach business, even to this day.
It also taught me the value of adaptability and being open to new perspectives. These are two skills that leaders need now more than ever as we experience a massive shake-up in the business world, thanks to a generation that’s turning the status quo on its head.
Yes, I’m talking about Gen Z, the group responsible for breaking the marketing funnel and making the business playbooks we use every day obsolete.
It’s why I dedicated four months speaking to over 500 Gen Zers working at B2B organizations. Keep scrolling and I’ll let you know exactly what I learned and how you can do better business in a Gen Z-dominated market.
Why I’m paying close attention to Gen Z’s spending power
In 2023, Gen Z and millennials already made up 71% of B2B buyers, according to a Forrester survey. That’s huge — and that number continues to grow.
As someone who runs a B2B social media performance platform, that stat rang some alarm bells. Especially when pairing it with some of the other recent Gen Z data I had been seeing — like how Gen Z’s global spending is expected to grow to $12 trillion (yes, TRILLION) by 2030.
I needed to dig deeper, and those who know me, know I wouldn’t be able to rest until I did.
Connecting with 519 Gen Z members was incredibly eye-opening. The opportunity around Gen Z audiences is even bigger than I initially thought, and we need to start capitalizing on it right now to win in 2025 and beyond.
So, what exactly defines Gen Z? Key traits you need to know
Let’s talk about some key characteristics of zoomers (those born between the mid-1990s and early 2010s), or as many like to call them, “digital natives.”
- What stage of life are they at? They’re getting married and starting to grow their families. They’ve established their careers — and want to advance. They’re even expected to make up more than a quarter of the global workforce by 2025.
- What’s important to them? They love to travel. They’re passionate about sustainability, the environment, and social justice issues. They’re gaming fanatics and social media obsessed.
- What do they worry about? Money, understandably, having been born into a financially unstable and uncertain era. Saving money is a big priority.
But perhaps more than anything, they’re a generation of contradictions. They grew up with phones in their pockets, but they rarely use them for talking. They want to come into the office, but definitely don’t want mandatory return-to-office policies. They’re AI enthusiasts but demand authenticity.
So you know what Gen Z are not? The same buyers as every other generation. And we have to stop treating them that way.
Think about how your own business has shifted in recent years. Are you experiencing longer buying cycles? Lower sales productivity? Higher customer acquisition costs?
Now think about how you’ve dealt with it. Using the same old sales methods? Hiring more business development reps and sales people? Throwing more money at paid acquisition?
Let me guess: It’s not working.
That’s because we’re using a B2B playbook designed for previous generations of buyers, and it’s not cutting it for Gen Z.
A new breed of buyers who research, scroll, and skip ads
With a unique generation of buyers comes the need to challenge everything we thought we knew about selling and business best practices. What we need now is something much more nuanced than a B2B framework — it’s a B2Z™ playbook.
The B2B buying journey is already a complex decision-making chain. And now, Gen Z employees are involved in making those purchasing decisions within their organizations. In fact, they’re often the champions that start the entire sales process. And they do things very differently.
Like other generations, they do extensive research on the products and software they’re considering. But social media is their search engine — not Google. They do their deep dives on Reddit to get the real tea on brands and businesses and watch hours of TikTok videos featuring B2B influencers who use the products.
That didn’t surprise me. (Though it’s valuable information businesses can use to build content that captures Gen Z buyers. They are, after all, the generation driving the demand for high-quality organic social content.)
My ‘aha’ moment came when I read that B2B audiences complete 60% of the purchase process before engaging with a sales rep — and the Gen Z members I personally spoke to confirmed it.
That’s when it hit me: Gen Z is the social self-service generation. And all the business shifts we’re experiencing started to make sense.
Gen Z B2B buyers are all about DIY (for more than just crafting and home renos). They don’t want to talk to you. They don’t want to sit through scripted pitches or product demos. They want to do it all themselves — bias-free.
So if you, as a business, want to be in control, put THEM in control.
Here are 3 ways to create an on-demand buying journey that does exactly that:
1. Double down on the research phase
Gen Z isn’t just shopping — they’re practically their own sales team. And although they have TikTok-short attention spans, they’ll still take the time to sift through multiple pieces of content before they even think about contacting you.
Bottom line? You must be everywhere they’re looking — think Reddit, TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram — with the right info at every stop. By the time they reach out to you, they’ve already done the legwork.
2. Build a seamless on-demand experience
Gen Z buyers demand on-demand. It’s time to ditch the old-school demos and create intuitive, interactive experiences that let them discover the value of your products on their own terms.
Remember, they’re not sizing you up against other B2B brands — they’re comparing you to the effortless shopping experiences they know.
When they order clothes on Amazon, the items appear at their doorstep in a matter of days, even hours. They can then try them on and if they don’t fit, send them back without a fuss. If they can do that with jeans, you better believe they’ll expect that same level of ease and convenience with digital products.
At Hootsuite, we’re ramping up our efforts to ensure we’re meeting our Gen Z and millennial audiences where they are (and appealing to their short attention spans). One of those efforts includes our “Fastest Hootsuite demo EVER,” which lives on YouTube, as well as some of our other social channels:
3. Embrace social selling
Over the last year, one of my top pieces of advice for brands was to build an executive presence on LinkedIn. It’s a goal I even had for myself in 2024. So I committed to it and saw incredible results, reaching 15,000 followers and driving real leads and revenue.
Why was this so successful? According to LinkedIn, 77% of buyers are more likely to purchase from a company whose leadership team is active on social media. People buy from people.
A CEO friend of mine recently told me that social media wasn’t relevant for their B2B business because they don’t sell to consumers. It’s true, they don’t sell to consumers.
But they do sell to HUMANS, and about 5 billion of them spend multiple hours a day on social media. Moral of the story: Don’t let anyone tell you that B2B businesses shouldn’t prioritize social!
There are tons of B2B brands doing amazing, groundbreaking work on social media, including selling. And so can you!
TL;DR
In my conversations with real Gen Z professionals, I realized that we’re not on the verge of a major business shift — we’re already there. And we need to step up now to get ahead. The key to it all is putting Gen Z buyers in the driver’s seat as they embark on their path to purchase.
Right now, we’re standing at a game-changing moment in our industry, one of those rare crossroads where bold moves can reshape everything. My challenge to you is simple: Lean into this moment with confidence, optimism, and resilience because it’s an opportunity you can’t afford to miss!
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